Flex’s blog

SPOILER WARNING!!! If you’re a Six Feet Under fan and you have not seen the Ecotone episode from this past Sunday - then do not read the following…

ok.

Yes folks.. Nate dies at the end of the episode. I couldn’t believe it and yet, I knew it was going to happen. The path that Nate was taking this season meant that the only real way of resolving everything was to kill Nate and have him finally join his Father (wherever that might be).

Why was this the logical course of action? It was becoming clearer and clearer that Nate and Brenda were not working out as a married couple. The fights continued and escalated between the two of them. It appeared that the only person that Nate truly cared about was Maya (his child) and Maggie (his step-sister). As Maggie and Nate got to know one another you had this feeling that something was there between the two of them. The stares that they would give to one another… the same lines of thought.. the innocent flirting gestures made by both parties.. you knew that trouble was in store. Yet I had hoped that the writers would not take Nate down this path.. but they did and Nate slipped up in the previous episode by sleeping with Maggie.

Once that fate was sealed, there were only a few outs for Nate:
1. He admits he cheated and he stays with Brenda in their flawed relationship. This isn’t a great way to end the series with both Brenda and Nate walking off into an uncertain future.. similar to how their entire relationship was like during the course of Six Feet Under. The only way around this would be for Brenda and Nate to truly work things out but that would take too many episodes and it’s already been established that they are too different.

2. He denies he cheated and leaves the show worse off than ever before in the eyes of the public. No can do there…
3. He leaves Brenda and goes to Maggie. Can’t do that either b/c there isn’t enough time to establish a real relationship with Maggie.
4. He ends up dying thereby leaving Brenda and Maggie and everyone. Now this was a real possibility because it solves everything. It solves his desire to leave his marriage; it solves his desire to leave his line of work.. his life in LA; and finally it solves his desire in some way to go back to the people that he really cared about - dad and Lisa (minus Maya of course)

As shocking as the ending was, it’s also the reason why Six Feet Under has been so successful over the last 4-5 years. It’s a show that is so out there at times and yet so close to home. I think that everyone of us can associate to some feeling or attribute of one of the characters on the show. I’ll truly miss it when it does end this year.